Of all the human senses, the sense of smell is perhaps the most arcane. Although the olfactory sense is capable of discerning extremely minute quantities of airborne odorants, olfactory sensitivity varies widely in any test population and is also quite variable in any one individual. Although there are devices known in the prior art for detecting specific airborne substances, there is no apparatus known in the prior art which is capable of detecting and identifying, particularly in real time, the wide spectrum of odorant materials to which the biological olfactory mechanism is sensitive, or of classifying odorants into categories similar to those perceived and described by man.
There are many potential commercial uses for a device which can detect and identify odorant substances reliably and repeatably. For example, objective odor determination could be used advantageously in the food processing industries, where the freshness and the quality of comestible products could be determined and unpleasing odors or incipient spoilage could be detected objectively through mechanical olfaction. An olfactory device could also have many applications in bringing some objectivity to the judgment of taste of comestible products. Likewise, there would be many uses for such a device in the perfume and cosmetic industries, for analyzing raw materials as well as odor matching products. Olfactory devices could also be employed advantageously in air pollution analyzing equipment, as well as in testing for alcoholic or other drug intoxication.
These commercial applications await the development of an apparatus which can reliably and repeatably emulate the range, sensitivity, and discriminability of biological olfaction.